The Royal Shakespeare Company is to go into schools up and down the country this month to help future generations appreciate the importance of the Bard’s work.
The world-famous theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, revealed that it is to ask youngsters what the playwright means to them as part of a special week of school assemblies.
Actors David Tennant, Dame Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart and Tamsin Greig, who have all starred in RSC productions, will feature in a short film giving messages of support to the theatre company.
With the abolition of Key Stage 3 tests, Year 9 pupils no longer have to sit a Shakespeare exam, yet he remains the only writer studied by all young people in England and Wales.
RSC bosses want to keep the love of Britain’s most famous playwright alive.
Jacqui O’Hanlon, RSC director of education, said: “We know that when students work on Shakespeare at both primary and secondary school amazing things can happen.They have to get in touch with an eloquence that isn’t called for in the rest of their school life in order to describe the impact of the language, the dilemmas of the characters and the life questions that the plays raise.”
Schools will be able to download specially created assembly tool-kits from the RSC’s Stand Up For Shakespeare website.
